Looking at the Mountains without Lowering the Shade

What has life with this body been like?
Ask yourself this question any time.
Please do not refer to the body

As yours. Bodies sometimes possess selves,
Sometimes don’t. Selves don’t possess bodies,
Save in fictions of laws and customs.

Any terms you have for referring to the body
Did not come from the body, although
You are mostly the body aware.

The terms, like the germs, came from others,
Who got them from others, who got them
From others, back to no one knows when.

You are those invasive terms you know,
As much as you are of the body.
You can use the terms to ask yourself

What has life with this body been like?
For some the answer won’t be pretty
Painful. For some it will be just that.

The body is a great harasser
Of its own calm, after all, and yours.
When it aches, it’s like inhabiting

A house with crazy beautiful views
That’s damp, drafty, lacking furniture,
Difficult, aside from the windows.